Tag Archives: crime bond

Strange way of stealing Gold from the Royal Canadian Mint.

Via the Anus!

The case against Leston Lawrence, 35, in an Ottawa courtroom presided over by Justice Peter Doody on a number of smuggling-for-cash charges may seem like a joke, but the risk of employee dishonesty is all too real. Mr. Lawrence is accused of theft, laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of stolen property, breach of trust and he was fired from the Mint. Would a Fidelity Crime Bond cover this?

During testimony it was revealed that Mr. Lawrence set off the metal detectors more often than the other employees (Except for the ones with medical implants), requiring manual scans using a metal detecting wand but they never seemed to find anything on him. Investigators say that he used Vaseline and rubber gloves that they found in his work locker to aid in smuggling the cookie sized pucks of gold.

Four of the pucks were found in a safe deposit box owned by Lawrence and he had sold 18 of them for approximately $6,800 each from November 2014 to March 2015. Subsequently, an obviously dedicated security employee tested the idea that the pucks could be concealed in an anal cavity and not be detected by the wand.

Curiously, the mint never noticed any gold missing. After a bank teller noticed Mr. Lawrence had been cashing several checks from a gold dealer and then transferring the money out of the country is when the teller looked up the man’s place of work and alerted the mint to the suspicious activity.

Jaw dropping statistics from the ‘Statistic Brain’ website, trusted research provider for Forbes, CNN, ABC News, and many others reveals that the amount stolen annually from U.S. businesses by employees is $50,000,000,000 and 7% of annual revenues are lost to employee dishonesty and fraud.

Although a minority of employees becomes dishonest, they can rationalize their theft in many ways: ‘the company won’t miss it,’ ‘they’re not paying me enough,’ or the person succumbs to gambling or some other addiction. Protecting a business with a Fiduciary bond aka Crime bond or Fidelity bond is the most effective way of preventing these losses. The definition on a Travelers Insurance policy for Employee Theft reads

“The Company will pay the Insured for the Insured’s direct loss of, or direct loss from damage to
Money, Securities and Other Property directly caused by Theft or Forgery committed by an
Employee, whether identified or not, acting alone or in collusion with other persons”

In addition to the employer being protected from covered losses due to theft and forgery, the exact definition of “who” is covered is defined in the policy, but should include all current or former employees, partners, members, directors, volunteers, trustees, seasonal employees and temporary employees. If the mint had one of these bond policies they would be insured against the conservatively estimated $180,000.00 loss.

Some of the typical exclusions to these policies are accounting or math errors, vandalism, Governmental action, restatement of a profit and loss statement and theft by the employer itself. You cannot steal from yourself; however coverage extends to partners, directors, members, and trustees.

An Indianapolis woman will learn her fate after admitting to six counts of wire fraud and money laundering in a $5.5 million embezzlement scheme.

No longer a swing state (The state typically votes Republican with an exception in 2008) Hoosiers will head to the polls as Kristi Espiritu will be headed to sentencing in U.S. District Court at 10 a.m. on Nov. 8. She worked at Network Storage Inc., a data storage company based in Indianapolis, from 2008 to 2014 as a bookkeeper.

Court records show that with access to the company’s bank accounts she used their money to pay for shopping trips to purchase luxury items such as diamonds, handbags, electronics, furnishings and travel. A common occurrence in employee theft losses. According to a plea agreement reached back in May she admitted to lying to company executives and falsifying books and payroll systems. Even the best managers, can be over trusting and never spot check or have a system to verify the monies in their bank account to avoid crimes like this.

As a part of a plea deal she agreed to pay $5.5 million in restitution, if she can’t pay that amount before sentencing, federal officials will use asset forfeiture to recover the funds. If the company purchased a dishonesty bond to cover this crime, they would become whole and not be concerned if the employee had the monies to repay the theft.

Espiritu could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on four wire fraud charges, and 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on two money laundering charges. White collar criminals steal through position and influence and quite often get away with their crimes for many years before getting caught.

It is unsure whether Network Storage Inc. had a fidelity bond (aka Crime Bond, Dishonesty Bond) which is a form of insurance protection that covers losses incurred as a result of fraudulent acts by specified individuals, usually insuring a business for losses caused by dishonest acts of its employees. Learn how fidelity bonds and surety bonds from BF Bond provide your growing business with the protection you require. Visit us at BFBond.com to fill out an application or call us at 800.921.1008